Yesterday staff at the John Roan were finally told after 2 months since the inspection, that Ofsted have judged our school as ‘inadequate with serious weaknesses’.

We as dedicated staff think this a grossly unfair judgement and we do not accept it. We are being punished by a Government that is starving our schools of funds and creating such a crisis that teachers are leaving in droves and our schools are crumbling under the pressure. We are doing over very best in these circumstances.

We have also suffered from a lack of stability since our highly respected Head, Des Malone retired. We have seen four Heads in two years with constant changes, new initiatives and very little stability in the leadership. Our new Head Cath Smith was appointed two weeks before the Ofsted inspection. Surely Ofsted should take this into account?

The very same teachers and support staff that worked with Des when we were judged a ‘good’ are now being told we are not good. How can this be?

This judgement empowers the Secretary of State to issue an academy order immediately and the University schools Trust (UST) has been named as the preferred sponsor. This is cynical move by a Government hell bent on privatisation to run our schools down then judge them to have failed

The NEU is opposed to academisation. Schools are for children, they are not and should not be seen as opportunities to make money or allow CEOs the power to award themselves inflated and frankly immoral salaries while our students go without textbooks and our support staff survive on poverty wages.

We are committed to working hard to improve our school and will do the best for our children but we will not be bullied by this Government into handing over our beloved Roan to the highest bidder.

John Roan NEU have voted to take industrial action against the forced academisation of The John Roan. We do not take such action lightly but the stakes are too high for the future of our school to stand by and let our community be treated in this way without any consultation.

We ask for the Roan community past, present and future to rally round and campaign to keep our school a community school as part of the family of Greenwich Local Authority schools.

We want our school to remain a caring, inclusive comprehensive that values all children and that invests in and respects all its staff. Multi Academy Trusts (MATs) simply don’t do this.

Please show some support and send them some messages of solidarity. In our times of need, support from others was invaluable at maintaining morale. If you can share the link/story with as many people as you can to highlight their plight and to help fight the forced academisation of their school, that would also be great. When we make lots of noise, people are more inclined to listen.